China's performance in living up to its World Trade Organization (WTO) entry commitments is quite impressive, though the country still must gear up to crack the remaining hard nuts, said Supachai Panitchpakdi, director-general of the WTO.

"China has lived up to its commitments to the WTO since it joined the organization three years ago. Perhaps during the first year after China's entry, the new member experienced some difficulties because China had to translate piles of documents from English to Chinese. But in the following two years, the situation has improved substantially for China to act in compliance with the WTO rules," Supachai said on the opening day of the Eighth Annual Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Forum, hosted by Businessweek in Beijing yesterday.

The fact, however, does not imply that China has settled down all the thorny issues relating to the fulfillment of its WTO commitments, the director-general said.

"For instance, in terms of intellectual property right protection, China has to strengthen its efforts to make sure all WTO requirements are fully carried out.

"Also depending on specific industrial sectors, there are still various obstacles confronting foreign companies when they choose to enter the local market for business purposes," Supachai said.

The head of the world trade watchdog raised the example of retail businesses opening in China.

The local sector is supposed to be fully opened to foreign capital by the end of this year. However a new regulation issued by the country's commerce authority seems to make some international retail giants a bit uneasy, due to some vague expressions and definitions in it.

"The new regulation is in line with WTO rules. But it still brings about new problems for foreign firms," Supachai said.

Although some hard nuts still exist, China's performance to act in line with WTO requirements is "quite outstanding." Supachai also praised China's positive role as a global economic driving force.

"Instead of snatching jobs from other economies, China is helping create more employment opportunities for other countries. In fact, China's neighboring countries, especially Japan and Southeast Asian countries, benefit a lot from China's economic boom," Supachai said.

(China Daily November 10, 2004)